Fact Sheet
How Schools Can Help Children Recover
from Traumatic Experiences
n the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina—and then Hurricane Rita—hundreds of thousands of school
children were displaced from their homes and schools. The kind of trauma these children experienced
as a result of the loss of their homes, familiar surroundings, and, sometimes, even family members and
friends, can have serious long-term consequences. Although the schools that absorbed these displaced children were in a unique position to help them by providing mental health support, they had limited information and resources with which to determine the children’s needs and provide appropriate help.
Working with the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute, RAND Health researchers interviewed school
personnel in four of the most heavily affected states—Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama—to
assess the types of information schools need most to help students displaced or otherwise affected by
natural disasters, community or personal violence, and other traumatic events. Using the information they
gathered, the researchers developed a program guide, which they call a tool kit, that describes a variety of
school-based mental health programs for students exposed to trauma. Some of the tools include
I
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guidance on forming small implementation teams and on assessing treatment needs
■
information on selecting children for trauma programs, including reliance on referrals from counselors
or teachers, or from parents, as well as targeted and general school screening
■
detailed descriptions of 24 trauma-focused programs that have been used worldwide, with information
on how to get program materials—for example, the Friends and New Places Program, which helped
1,100 students displaced to the Dallas Independent School District following Hurricane Katrina; and
Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS), developed jointly by RAND, UCLA,
and the L.A. Unified School District
■
comparisons of programs focused on general trauma, disaster-related trauma, traumatic loss, exposure
to violence, and complex trauma
■
currently available funding options to obtain program materials and train staff, as well as ways to identify
new sources of funding
■
additional resources that schools can use to help students in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event.
According to many school personnel the team interviewed, the greatest barriers to helping students following
the hurricanes were not knowing what mental health programs they should use and the lack of staff who were
trained to implement these types of programs. How Schools Can Help Students Recover from Traumatic Experiences: A Tool Kit for Supporting Long-Term Recovery puts this information in the hands of schools so that it is available before a disaster happens. Plans are under way to make the tool kit available as a Web-based search tool.
This fact sheet is based on work done within RAND Health, working with the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute, documented in How Schools Can Help Students Recover from Traumatic Experiences: A Tool Kit for Supporting Long-Term
Recovery, by Lisa H. Jaycox, Lindsey K. Morse, Terri Tanielian, and Bradley D. Stein, TR-413-RC, 2006, 74 pp., $23.00,
ISBN: 978-0-8330-4037-4 (available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR413/).
Office of Congressional Relations | 703-413-1100 x5320 | ocr@rand.org | www.rand.org/congress
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THE ARTS
CHILD POLICY
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